Hope

Leyla Josephine’s pamphlet Hopeless (Speculative Books, £6.99) begins by asking the somewhat tongue-in-cheek question “You know this is going to be miserable, right?” and goes on to conflate romantic disappointment with a world in turmoil. But as the poem below suggests, her poetry works its way towards a more optimistic conclusion. The pamphlet captures Josephine’s one-woman stage show, Hopeless, which “examines human suffering through quick-fire poetry and dark comedy”. Josephine performs Hopeless at Summerhall in Edinburgh on 4 May.

Every moment ends and the next begins, within that crack shines possibility.

We have the ability to shift to something else.

Hope picks up the pieces even when there is nothing left but dust.

Hope is the trust of the waves

coming to the shore time and time again,

knowing that with every touch the landscape changes and mountains are made.